


That Ever Ancient Tradition

by orphan_account



Category: Olympics RPF, Swimming RPF
Genre: Drabble, First Love, Friends to Lovers, Life Partners, Loyalty, M/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 02:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1965393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short look into Ryan's mind during the medal ceremony for the 4x200m relay in London.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Ever Ancient Tradition

* * *

You love him more than anything you've ever laid eyes on. You love him more than your own family, more than any woman you have been or ever will be with. You love him in the way Achilles loved Patroclus and Alexander loved Hephaestion. In that ever ancient tradition of the warrior and his closest compatriot, men who fight and fuck and claim and conquer together.

Always together.

This is why you teach him to love himself. You teach him to love his imperfections and his insecurities and the little lisp leftover from when he was a child that slips out sometimes when he talks too fast. You teach him that it's okay to be passionate. It is through your example that he learns that emotions aren't a luxury reserved for women and the weak.

And the more you teach the more he learns.

He learns how to entertain you with his innocent optimism and frustrate you with his unintentional sexuality. He learns that his place is always right next to you and that no one else will ever take that place as long as he chooses to remain there. He learns that competition ends the moment either one of you steps out of the pool and that there is no such thing as going to sleep angry at each other.

And now, standing beside him on the podium as you both accept the reward for all that you've worked for, you look at him and smile. You smile because you have found that your greatest triumph is not the feats that you have achieved in your sport, but the simple fact that you've had him to love and you have loved him well.


End file.
